How I saved $100

 I don't know if you've seen this "homemade miracle cleaner" recipe floating around on the internet, but I decided to give it a try the other day. I am an enthusiastic Stain Annihilator in my spare time (lots of practice from two of the messiest kids I know). Basically, you mix two parts of hydrogen peroxide to one part blue Dawn dish soap together and soak stuff in it, or put it in a spray bottle. You end up with something that looks like Windex, but after about a day, the color fades to almost clear.

Did it work?......

Well, I had some clothes that I'd tried to clean multiple times with my usual arsenal of Fels Naptha, straight liquid detergent and Oxi Clean but the stains hadn't budged. I squirted some of this soap/peroxide stuff on, let it sit for a few hours, and washed them as usual. The stains disappeared!!!* WHOAAAAA

A blogger on Modern Day Moms had blogged about how she'd used the solution to clean an upholstered chair. Cue our off white glider & ottoman in Luke's room, which we bought nearly eight years ago:

 This chair has been embarrassingly grody for quite a while now. (That big blue spot at the bottom is my shadow, not a stain, btw.) I'd even called Stanley Steemers a few months ago to ask about getting it professionally cleaned. They'd do it for $100-$120. Gaak.

 So I went to town with my new spray bottle of miracle cleaner on the chair, scrubbed it in and let it sit for a while and then worked on some stains on my white shag carpet in the living room. (Why do I keep buying white things?? Good question.) As I was working on the rug, I realized that this stuff has to be rinsed out, despite what they'd said on Modern Day Moms. Huh.

NOW what was I gonna do?!

 Well, I stuck the whole ottoman in my tub, turned on the shower and let it rinse for 5-10 minutes, then squeezed out the water.. The cushions and arm rests were just snapped or tied onto the frame of the chair, so I just shoved them into my front loader washing machine (in two separate loads) and ran them through a cycle. The seat didn't dry very well in the dryer, so I stuck it in to the tub to finish drying.

 But then it had water stains when it dried! Uuuughhhhhhh our hard water is the worst.

 So I sprayed it again with the miracle cleaner, crammed it back in the washer for a rinse/spin cycle, dried it in the dryer and it was fine. (Are you beginning to think that I might as well have spent the $100 bucks?? Me too. Haha.)

 I wiped down the frame of the chair, waited till everything was completely dry, and reassembled it.

And voilà!!!! My chair is cleaner than it's been in years! It looks brand new!

Now all I need to do is keep Mr. Chocolate Fudge Pop Tart Who Wipes His Hands On Everything away from it. At least until I buy some Scotch Gard.

* A couple of shirts I treated with the miracle cleaner ended up with spots on the fabric that were bleached out, but I'm pretty sure it was because I accidentally splashed bleach on them when I was preparing a load of sheets to wash, not because of the peroxide in the cleaning solution. I thought I'd throw a disclaimer out there anyway. If you don't want to trust my clumsiness, then just pre-treat your clothes right before laundering.